lying between two routes, for the passport, although specifying the routes, did not specify the area between them. Therefore permission to cross the frontier by any new route lying between these two points must at least be referred to the governor of the province, and, if necessary, to St Petersburg. In spite of this apparently ridiculous formalism one could not but be struck with the extraordinarily intricate passport system which controls the movements of all persons both native and foreign in all districts throughout the Empire. Our names and all about us were known to all frontier officials from the Yenisei Government to the Ili frontier in Western China. No native Siberian can move from his village without a village paper stating who he is and where he comes from and whither he is going. To leave the Empire a Russian subject must have a special passport from the peasant official in charge of the "volost" or district, in which he lives. And so this marvellous system works throughout the length and breadth of this great Empire; no one can move without the risk of having his papers demanded, and everyone can be traced if he is wanted for anything by the authorities. The expense of keeping the system in working order must be enormous, and one doubts its practical use, although no one can doubt that it works with reasonable efficiency.
The powers which the Uesdy Nachalnik exercise, without responsibility except to those officials above him, are, of course, liable to abuse, especially in remote districts. For instance I remember meeting the Uesdy Nachalnik of Minusinsk in the streets one evening while we were in the town, and being asked by him whether I would buy a gold concession which
